Arcaffè SpA > Caffè Speciali Certificati

      

“CSC, Caffè Speciali Certificati is an association born of the experience and passion of a group of roasters with a single common purpose: that of promoting the culture of quality coffee, to affirm the value of a quest arising from their own traditional professional backgrounds.

This mutual dream, this authentic and unerring ideal has given birth to a project which aims to make coffee a choice of flavour, and not just a simple habit.  An undertaking which represents a dual challenge: that of the market and that of breaking strong habits.

To achieve this aim CSC offers the support of its ability and experience, providing its members with access to selected and certified raw coffees, so that the final product is not just any old cup of coffee, but a coffee of true quality.

Too frequently abused, the concept of quality is instead a very real requirement: it only remains to define the criteria necessary to achieve the end.

Which is why CSC has armed itself with strict procedures, elaborated with the purpose of obtaining a secure and demonstrable standard of quality.  The correct and efficient application of these procedures to the methods of production and selection of green coffee has obtained ISO 9002 certification.

CSC is therefore able to guarantee, from coffee plantation to coffee cup, the superior level of blends marketed by its members: a special label, progressively numbered and provided with an anti-forgery device, certifies that the package to which it is applied contains solely Certified Speciality Coffee – Caffè Speciale Certificato.

CSC does not purchase coffee, but superintends the controls required to guarantee its quality.  How is this done?  It is done thanks to an ISO 9002-certificated procedure involving all the phases of the coffee production cycle, starting with the identification of those plantations with the best requisites, right through to tests at the plant of the individual roasters.

To guarantee continuity of quality, the green coffee producers selected by CSC must prove that:

  •         they own the plantation;

  •         they own the machinery to process the harvested coffee; and

  •         they export the coffee themselves.

The Technical Commission defines, for each source of green coffee the standards of excellence necessary to obtain CSC quality certification, and identifies the ideal areas and altitudes for cultivation as well as the best times of the years for shipment.  It also verifies that the quality of the green coffee from each crop complies with the established quality standards.

At the start of each crop-season, our coffee producers send CSC a representative sample of their crop.  This is then forwarded to qualified tasters who carry out full physical and organoleptic testing.  Subsequently the Technical Commission examines the test results to verify that they comply with the established standards of excellence.

When an associated roaster purchases a shipment of coffee to be certified, an independent inspector effects sampling during the unloading operations, after the arrival of the carrying vessel at final destination.  Then he forwards the sample to the taster who compares this sample with the previously tested crop sample.  If the taster confirms that the quality of the unloading sample corresponds to the crop sample, CSC sends the roaster a number of CSC labels proportionate to the quantity of green coffee purchased.

In order to guarantee the quality of the product, CSC inspectors verify at the associated roaster’s plant that all the procedure specifications have been complied with, including the compilation of the form relative to the roasting, blending and packaging of the coffee.

Roasters are obliged to conserve the samples of green coffee corresponding to the declared blends until the arrival of the inspectors at their roasting plant.  Each sample must be accompanied by a form indicating all the shipments of certified coffee being used to prepare the parcel to which the sample refers.

The Association regulations contain a list of the requirements which must be met by a green coffee arriving from the producing countries in order to be considered as “special”, a coffee which must, therefore, be in possession of those characteristics of excellence which are indispensable for CSC quality certification.

A specific attachment contains a list of quality standards for each of the various areas of origin.  For each producing country the classifications of the best products have been taken into account.  Using these parameters as a basis and subsequent to careful study, the quality levels have been raised even further, and some important technical specifications have been added such as, for example, the best period of the year for shipping goods in the ports in the various countries of origin.”

CSC brochure

“For CSC members, quality is first and foremost a value, both professional and personal, expressed by a quest which is extended to all phases of the production cycle.  So what does certified speciality coffee really mean?  It means that we have been in person to select the plantations from which our raw coffee originates and that we check, on an annual basis, the quality of the harvest based on set standards.  It means that the shipments purchased by members are re-checked at discharge and tested by highly qualified tasters.  And yet again, it means that CSC controls continue throughout roasting, to ensure that blends marketed with our sticker are produced using only certified green coffee and that the correct roasting, blending and packing procedures are followed.”

President of CSC

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